Honorary Degrees

Nobel Conference

Gustavus Adolphus College has recognized 92 winners of Nobel Prizes with honorary doctorates. Listed here, by year of visit, are those prizewinners who have been present on the Gustavus campus to accept an honorary degree from the College. Of the 66 Nobel laureates who have participated in one or more Nobel Conferences on campus, 60 have been awarded honorary degrees.

2013

George Smoot III (Physics '06) - Doctor of Science

Samuel Ting (Physics '76) - Doctor of Science

Frank Wilczek (Physics '04) - Doctor of Science

2010

Derek Walcott (Literature '92) - Doctor of Humane Letters

2009

Rajendra K. Pachauri (Peace '07) - Doctor of Science

2008

Leon Lederman (Physics '97) - Doctor of Science

2007

Steven Chu (Physics '97) - Doctor of Science

2006

J. Michael Bishop (Medicine '89) - Doctor of Science

2005

Jody Williams (Peace '97) - Doctor of Humane Letters

Wolfgang Ketterle (Physics '01) - Doctor of Science

2003

Oscar Arias Sánchez - Doctor of Laws

2002

Eric R. Kandel - Doctor of Science

2001

Günter Blobel - Doctor of Science

Edmond H. Fischer - Doctor of Science

Roald Hoffmann - Doctor of Science

Sir Harold W. Kroto - Doctor of Science

2000

Robert A. Mundell - Doctor of Humane Letters

1997

Toni Morrison - Doctor of Humane Letters

F. Sherwood Rowland - Doctor of Science

1995

Philip W. Anderson - Doctor of Science

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes - Doctor of Science

1994

David Hubel - Doctor of Science

Elie Wiesel - Doctor of Humane Letters

1992

Baruj Benacerraf - Doctor of Science

1991

William A. Fowler - Doctor of Science

1990

Ilya Prigogine - Doctor of Science

1989

Sheldon Lee Glashow - Doctor of Science

1986

James Tobin - Doctor of Humane Letters

1985

Salvador Luria - Doctor of Science

1984

Herbert Simon - Doctor of Science

1982

Sir Peter Medawar - Doctor of Science

1981

Ragnar Granit - Doctor of Science

Czeslaw Milosz - Doctor of Humane Letters

George Snell - Doctor of Science

Eugene Wigner - Doctor of Science

1980

William N. Lipscomb Jr. - Doctor of Science

Isaac Bashevis Singer - Doctor of Literature

1977

Max Delbrück - Doctor of Science

1976

Murray Gell-Mann - Doctor of Science

1975

Christian Anfinsen - Doctor of Laws

George Beadle - Doctor of Science

Hans Bethe - Doctor of Science

Felix Bloch - Doctor of Science

Leon Cooper - Doctor of Laws

Christian de Duve - Doctor of Laws

Gerald Edelman - Doctor of Laws

Charles Huggins - Doctor of Science

Simon Kuznets - Doctor of Laws

Willis Lamb Jr. - Doctor of Science

Fritz Lipmann - Doctor of Science

Robert Mulliken - Doctor of Science

Lars Onsager - Doctor of Science

Julian Schwinger - Doctor of Science

Ernest Walton - Doctor of Science

Thomas Weller - Doctor of Science

Chen Ning Yang - Doctor of Science

1974

Paul A. Samuelson - Doctor of Laws

1972

Ulf S. von Euler - Doctor of Science

George Wald - Doctor of Science

1971

Norman Borlaug - Doctor of Humane Letters

Alva Myrdal - Doctor of Divinity

Gunnar Myrdal - Doctor of Humane Letters

1970

Willard Frank Libby - Doctor of Science

1967

Sir John Eccles - Doctor of Science

1966

Charles Hard Townes - Doctor of Science

1963

Carl D. Anderson - Doctor of Science

Georg von Békésy - Doctor of Science

Walter H. Brattain - Doctor of Science

Melvin Calvin - Doctor of Science

Carl F. Cori - Doctor of Science

Andre F. Cournand - Doctor of Science

Peter J. W. Debye - Doctor of Science

Edward A. Doisy - Doctor of Science

James Franck - Doctor of Science

Dag Hammarskjöld - Doctor of Laws (posthumously)

Philip S. Hench - Doctor of Science

Robert Hofstadter - Doctor of Science

Edward C. Kendall - Doctor of Science

Polykarp Kusch - Doctor of Science

Edwin M. McMillan - Doctor of Science

Rudolf Mössbauer - Doctor of Science

William P. Murphy - Doctor of Science

Severo Ochoa - Doctor of Science

Linus C. Pauling - Doctor of Science

Emilio G. Segrè - Doctor of Science

William B. Shockley - Doctor of Science

Wendell M. Stanley - Doctor of Science

Edward L. Tatum - Doctor of Science

Arne Tiselius - Doctor of Science

Harold C. Urey - Doctor of Science

1954

Glenn T. Seaborg - Doctor of Science

1950

Ralph J. Bunche - Doctor of Laws

In addition, the following Nobel Prize winners have been on campus as guests of the College but were not recognized with honorary degrees for various reasons.

2001

Stanley B. Prusiner (Medicine '97) - could not be present on campus and delivered lecture by phone hook-up

2000

Joseph E. Stiglitz (Economics '01) - visited before being named a laureate

1999

Elizabeth Blackburn (Medicine '09) - visited before being named a laureate